Chapter 1221 – First in a Great World … … … The purple clouds of thunder continued to roil through the skies. The thunder dominion carried on, as if it would last until the end of time. Facing this thunder dominion, all of the core disciples of the True Martial Holy Lands felt powerless and weak. And at this time, 10,000 miles away, the red-furred monster’s corpse dissolved into pure dreamland energy. This dreamland energy was larger than any mass of dreamland energy that Lin Ming had ever seen before. It was bright and radiant, blinding to the eyes. This sort of feeling was like the difference between a violet sun stone and a violet sun crystal. Lin Ming thought for a moment. He didn’t rush to absorb the dreamland energy. Instead, he dragged this dreamland energy into a hidden valley and concealed his own position using layers of array formations. Currently, the entire divine dream space was being flooded with tides of nightmare beasts. If he wanted to absorb this dreamland energy he would need to find a safe place to do so. After finishing all of this, Lin Ming then focused his thoughts on the dreamland energy. The dreamland energy exploded, turning into countless motes of starlight that fused into his body. This powerful and pure energy turned into streams that submerged into Lin Ming’s soul. The fourth divine dream mark emitted a blazing light as it climbed towards perfection at unimaginable speeds. Not just that, but there was still a tremendous amount of divine dream energy remaining. After Lin Ming checked his own merit points, he was slightly surprised. In a single go, his merit points had suddenly risen to 238 million. From his fourth place position, he had now become first! After killing the red-furred monster, he had obtained almost a hundred million merit points in a single fell swoop! Lin Ming’s change in ranking was also reflected in the Divine Seal Decree. Within the entire Divine Realm, besides the Unbroken Cult and the Ancient Phoenix Clan, there were also many other great influences paying attention to Lin Ming’s ranking. Before this, only the top 10,000 participants had the qualifications to be checked up on all 24 hours of the day by the various Great World King Holy Lands, and Lin Ming’s previous best ranking had been just less than 3000. Now, Lin Ming’s ranking suddenly vanished from its spot around 8000 on the Divine Seal Decree. It immediately jumped up past 1000 and stopped at 890. With this, he had surpassed Dragon Fang! The top 1000 rankings were a completely new level. After rising to this boundary, with some luck, one could become an ordinary World King! And if one was a World King, then even if they weren’t a Great World King they could still be an overlord of their own domain! On average, the achievement of an Empyrean descendant was also to become a World King. As for the future achievements of Great World King descendants, they would become Holy Lords and the stronger ones amongst them would become half-step World Kings. The future boundary of a descendant was often a level lower than their master. Even for the True Martial Holy Lands with their deeply accumulated resources for several millions of years, while the True Martial World King had trained over a hundred descendants there hadn’t even been an ordinary World King born from them. From this one could see just how difficult it was to produce a World King. At this time, in a remote great world, within the outskirts of a great city, 10,000 martial artists were gathered together, all of them wearing similar-looking red clothes. Their cultivations were all at the Life Destruction realm. “Look! There’s been a great chance in Senior-apprentice Brother Lin’s ranking!” “Rank 890 on the Divine Seal Decree. He has surpassed Dragon Fang as first on his great world! He’s finally reached first place! Awesome!” These red-clothed martial artists were all disciples of the Ancient Phoenix Clan. The Ancient Phoenix Clan was broadly distributed all over the Divine Realm and they were found on multiple great worlds. Now, even in these remote branch palaces, as well as the many disciples that had gone out adventuring, all of them knew of Lin Ming. They knew that an extraordinary genius had appeared from within the ranks of their Ancient Phoenix Clan! As fellow disciples of the Ancient Phoenix Clan, all of their hearts were filled with pride and joy. First place on a great world, and even in the top 1000 rankings of the entire Divine Realm! This achievement was enough to be recorded in the annals of their clan’s history! And in Crimson Light World, in a magnificent tower of gold and jade, a towering middle-aged man with a full head of crimson red hair was sitting grandly on a wooden seat. In front of him was a table with bronze cups and a pot of wine. The crimson-haired man narrowed his eyes as he looked at the Divine Seal Decree. He muttered to himself, “This Lin Ming is the one that completed the Thousand Slaughter and cut down the wisp of divine sense that I had left behind in the Illusionary God Combat Array… I didn’t think that I would see him ranked in the top 1000 positions of the Divine Seal Decree.” This man was the Crimson Light World’s Crimson Dragon Envoy – Crimson Strifecloud. Crimson Strifecloud let out a deep and long sigh. The current him was no longer the insolent and brash youth that he was in the past, all those tens of thousands of years ago. This was because he was now well aware of how difficult every step was after becoming a Holy Lord. He had already been stuck behind the hurdle that prevented him from becoming a World King for 15,000 years by now. Without some heaven-defying lucky chance, there simply wasn’t any possibility for him to make another breakthrough in his life. And now, it seemed that this Lin Ming’s talent had already far surpassed his own. “The Ancient Phoenix Clan has truly risen from the past… I thought that Lin Ming would become a character like Xiao Daoji or Huo Burning Heaven in the future, but now it seems that I underestimated him! Really, the waves come and the waves go; the new must replace the old.” Crimson Strifecloud shook his head, draining a cup of wine in front of him. …………. At this time, within the Divine Dream World, Lin Ming felt as if his own soul had left his body. His entire body was floating on nothing without any weight at all. His soul form arrived in a world filled with endless color, with countless lines of infinite hues twisting and changing around him without end. And between these lines was a floating purple crystal. This purple crystal was in the shape of a six-sided prism, and there were three fine lines sealed within it. Of these three lines, each was a different color: blue, red, and purple. These thin lines constantly twisted, moving about just like living creatures. “This purple crystal… is different from the one that the red-furred monster swallowed. That purple crystal only had a single thin line within it, but this one actually has three… if I’m right then that red-furred monster must have swallowed down similar crystals before and each of the living lines within those crystals must have gathered together to form this final purple crystal. “Then, the truth is that the secret of the purple crystals lies within these thin lines!” Lin Ming could faintly feel that these strange purple crystals were in fact only used as a carrier to seal in these fine lines. The lines were the key to the puzzle. Lin Ming stared at these fine lines for some time. He didn’t know why, but as he looked at them he felt a faint sense of apprehension and dread creep over him. “How can I perceive the secrets within these lines? Should I swallow them?” Lin Ming thought out loud. The method the red-furred monster had used was to swallow them up. After hesitating for a moment, Lin Ming finally came to a decision. He slowly reached out and guided these fine lines to his fingertips. When the lines touched Lin Ming’s skin, they suddenly started moving like spirit snakes and drilled into his body. Lin Ming felt an incomparably cold energy spread up through his arms and into his soul. At that time, Lin Ming felt his spiritual sea shake and a fierce aching pain wrack his body. It felt like countless vipers were biting into his body. With a stuffy cough he nearly tumbled to the ground. When this agonizing pain struck him, it felt as if something was going all-out in trying to drill into his brain. This feeling was similar to when Lin Ming first opened the Magic Cube and absorbed that ownerless soul fragment. When Lin Ming had first opened the Magic Cube, the power of his soul and will had been tiny and weak; his past state was incomparable to how he was now. But correspondingly, this mysterious energy was tens of thousands of times more powerful than those ownerless soul fragments of the past! Lin Ming staunchly defended his mind, wanting to use his willpower to resist the harrowing soul pain. However, as he was doing so he felt an immense strength impact into his soul form. Underneath the force of this terrifying strength he lost all control over his body. In that instant, a dreadful icy cold spread all throughout Lin Ming’s body, invading every inch of him. This feeling was just as if he had been turned back into a mortal and was tossed stark naked into an endless field of snow and ice. Lin Ming’s body was soon covered in a thick layer of frost and ice. The layer of ice became increasingly thick. With his soul frozen, Lin Ming was completely unable to move. He didn’t even have the motor abilities to blink his eyes. After the ice gathered for some time, cracks began to appear in the layers of ice. Ka ka ka! The cracks continued to spread. Lin Ming’s body also began to disintegrate with this cracking ice! At this sudden change, even if Lin Ming’s will was amazingly strong, a hint of panic and fear began to appear in his mind. In this colorful rainbow-hued world, the truth was that his body represented his soul. If his soul disintegrated, how could he still live? Lin Ming’s mind raced. He tried everything he could, but whether it was trying to summon his battle spirit or guarding his mind, everything he tried was useless! As he saw cracks appear all throughout his soul form, Lin Ming could only pin his hopes on the strange Laws that governed the Divine Dream World. With the existence of these Laws, even if his soul disintegrated he still wouldn’t die. It was the same principle as reforming his soul after crossing Life Destruction. As his body was disintegrating, a soul-tearing pain swept through his entire body! This sort of pain that came directly from the soul was at least 10 times, a hundred times more tortuous than one’s mortal body being torn apart. Lin Ming watched with his own eyes as more and more cracks spread over his body. His soul form had already reached the limit of its endurance. At the end, Lin Ming’s body completely burst apart, turning into countless motes of soul lights that scattered in all directions. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢 The degree to which his soul had disintegrated was even more thorough than the last three stages of Life Destruction that Lin Ming had crossed. Lin Ming felt his consciousness turn fuzzy and his thoughts become muddled. The power that fractured his soul into countless bits was far too strong, to a degree that he couldn’t summon any resistance to it. In a haze, Lin Ming could sense those three wisps of purple, red, and blue energy that had been sealed within the purple crystal slowly gather together before fusing into the floating soul lights. Then, with these three wisps of energy as the core, the countless motes of soul lights began to converge as one; Lin Ming’s soul was being slowly restored. His body, his limbs, his face, everything reformed. His consciousness also gradually became clear again. A moment later, Lin Ming’s soul had completely recovered and those three wisps of energy had disappeared. “This is… what’s going on here?” Lin Ming looked down and examined his reformed hands, his eyes filled with disbelief. “My soul force has become stronger, and it’s actually become several times stronger!” As Lin Ming felt the change in his soul force, he sucked in a breath of cold air.